Agriculture

For more than half a century, the European Union's agricultural policy has focussed primarily on increasing agricultural productivity and the cost-effective production of food. This policy paper provides recommendations for action that are largely possible without amending the EU treaties.

The build-up of national, regional and global public buffer stocks for food can help stabilise prices on global agricultural markets and limit inflation. 

Due to the war in Ukraine, grain prices have risen sharply. But a reduction in fallow land in the EU would only have a minor effect on the world market price for grain. Therefore, it would be better to provide financial aid to the most vulnerable countries.

The Societal Transfomation Scenario is a global 1.5°C mitigation scenario that challenges the notion of continued global economic growth and its compatibility with ambitious climate targets such as the 1.5°C limit. This summary brings together all the key points.

It is possible to create sustainable, just and healthy food systems. For this to happen, it is key to strengthen political structures that truly focus on the right to food, on healthy nutrition, and on protecting biodiversity and the climate.

There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced.

The „Societal Transfomation Scenario“ is a global 1.5°C mitigation scenario, which challenges  the notion of perpetual global economic growth and its compatibility with ambitious climate goals like the 1.5°C limit. It shows how through a reduction of production and consumption in the Global North, we can stay below 1.5°C without resorting to high-risk technologies like CCS, geoengineering and nuclear, while also avoiding temperature overshoot.